Vintage Keystone tap and die set

A friend was cleaning out his dad's garage, after he passed, ran across some things that I might have some interest in. He tried to explain what he had run across, one was this tap and die set. I finally got a chance to look it over. Obviously some vintage stuff here, I told him that I wouldn't think about using it, it is mostly decorative value. Good shape for its age. What little I could find on the company, they have been gone for quite some time. Keystone Reamer Company

A couple more pictures

Good looking set for its age.

Nowhere near as nice but I made the mistake of using an old Craftsman tap/drill set I picked out of a packrat cleanout a couple year ago- think the taps and drills were made out of chalk; sharp due to never being used but broke as soon as used for anything nontrivial. After getting out of a nasty corner with one of the drills broken off in an exhaust stud by the skin of my teeth I tossed the whole set... romance gone lol

I see a lot of old tap and die sets on Ebay or other auctions. Some at Flea Markets but seldom go to any. Thought many times of getting a set but I have drawers full of taps. Dies not so much but keep my eyes open. For me if the quality/condition was good I wouldn't hesitate to use them. But normally I am chasing threads and cleaning up old threads not making new ones. I think these old sets in their original boxes it cool stuff. I have found it hard to find complete sets, usually missing a few pcs. Thanks for sharing. Now I will be on the hunt again. Regards, John.

This is the first time that I have used the new phone for pics, can see it is garbage.....disappointed with how it looks. The wooden box and all make for a nice display, don't see a set that large in decent shape often.

Nice set, you should use it!
I have the same exact set in my shop and use it when the need arises. I know that the set I have is at least as old as the mid '50's, as it came with the contents of a bamboo rod shop that my mentor in the business bought out in about 1957. Suspect it might even be from the '40's or maybe earlier. Don't know when Keystone closed its doors or was absorbed by someone else.
CWC(4)

Look useable to me. Nice adjustable dies.

My old man had lots of ex WW2 surplus tap and die sets..........carbon steel and the dies were very hard and very easy to break flakes out of,especially if you used them in a lathe........didnt worry ,he had drums full....break one ,just toss it back in the drum,and get out a better one.I used to love the smell of the oregon pine boxes they came in..........He even had a stack of new ,unused boxes,all army surplus.I still have few of the smaller ones ...people get excited seeing the new box......but its empty............my idea of a good die is a GTD Little Giant......which unfortunately seem to be discontinued in the last couple of years.

my idea of a good die is a GTD Little Giant......which unfortunately seem to be discontinued in the last couple of years.

Click to expand...

GTD is still around and still making dies, but bring your wallet with a NEW die set in the order of $56 each, and the dies with collets as a unit for $125.

Carbon steel has lost favor with many machinists as the life is not there compared to High speed. BUT - discerning machinists know that carbon steel dies cut easier and more precisely than high speed - something about the galling of metal alongside high speed dies which is less with carbon steel.

For threading cast iron, carbon steel is virtually effortless compared to high speed. Something about the graphite in the cast.

As to Craftsman, for years and years Craftsman die sets were actually GTD, but with a single handle and individual dies to fit - no collets. Not sure if they were the same "quality" as true GTD, but the parts will interchange.



When Craftsman entered the "Hex die" era (i.e. rethreading dies used with a regular box or open end wrench) the quality kind of went down on all the line generally. Round dies in Craftsman had a number of sources, but Hansen was early and these are ok.



My experience.

Joe in NH